I love turning our learning goals into games; learning is so much more hands-on and fun that way! This ABC FIND IT! Game is a mix of I SPY and letter recognition. If you and your child are familiar with SPOT IT! Games, you'll love this simple letter version.

Preschool Alphabet Game

Supplies:

Letter Manipulatives

Index Cards

Scissors

Marker

First, prep the alphabet cards by cutting index cards in half. Write one letter from the alphabet, A-Z, on each card.

Depending on your letter manipulatives you can choose to work on matching uppercase letter to uppercase letter, lowercase letter to lowercase letter, or uppercase letter to lowercase letter.

Another option is to use one-sided alphabet flashcards.

How to Play:

Place the alphabet cards face down.

Arrange the letter manipulatives all over the floor or table in front of you.

Flip over a card and be the first to FIND and grab the matching letter!

Have a curious kiddo who loves to ask questions and seek out answers? Looking for a great book series for young kids? If so, I'm excited to share a new book series called Zoey and Sassafras. We were given the first book, Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows, in exchange for an honest review from The Innovation Press. After reading it, I hopped online and ordered the next two books!

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I am always on the lookout for good books for my children. There are just too many books out there where the main character acts like a kid, instead of being a kid to emulate-- know what I mean?! So, when we read Dragons and Marshmallows, I was thrilled to come across a strong female character who loves to learn without the drama.

About Zoey and Sassafras:

Zoey is like all kiddos- curious about the world around her. Sassafras is her full-of-personality cat that takes part in all her adventures. In Dragons and Marshmallows, Zoey learns that she can see magical animals as a baby dragon comes to her looking for help. Zoey makes observations and uses her scientific knowledge to help the baby dragon get better.

Why we love the Zoey and Sassafras series:

The font is larger so it is easy for beginning readers to not feel overwhelmed

great illustrations throughout the book help readers understand what is happening

chilren will expand vocabulary with STEM related words

great storyline of adventure

The books are to be enjoyed by children ages 4-10. They would make a great read-aloud for the younger children, and independent reading for older kiddos.

As I mentioned above that it can be overwhelming to sift through the rows and rows of children's books your local library or bookstore in hopes to find a good book without drama. My 6 year old and I just loved the first book, and the next two books that followed!

I loved that the book, Dragons and Marshmallows, was short and to the point; it didn't contain extra fluff. It had all the Elements of a Story to make it a fun and captivating read;

The story inspired me to make STORY bookmarks that will help young readers zone in on what any story is about.
S- setting (where does the story take place)
T - talking characters (who is the story about)
O - Oh No! Identify the problem
R - Resolve Attempted
Y - Yes! Problem Solved(I came across the STORY acronym in Christian Light Education's Reading 500 Program)

Each bookmark includes a loveable character from the Zoey and Sassafras series. There are four bookmarks per printable. If interested, add some color to the black and white bookmarks. Punch a hole at the top and add some yarn or ribbon.

Use it along with any of the Zoey and Sassafrass books, or another book of your choosing! Enjoy reading a story by recognizing the STORY.

Send a secret message to your little loved one this Valentine's Day with this fun scavenger hunt! My preschooler loved finding the hidden colored hearts around the room and discovering the secret message. Happy Valentine's Day!

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A sweet book to share with your little one this Valentine's Day is, Guess How Much I Love You. I received this book at my baby shower with my first born and it has been well loved and read multiple times over in the last ten years. It is also the Virtual Book Club's (VBC) book of the week.

In addition to reading the book, play this sweet secret message scavenger hunt with your little one this Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day Scavenger Hunt for Kids

Setting up the Scavenger Hunt:

Cut out a large heart from construction paper. Decide what your secret message will be and "write" out the message with lines.

For our secret message, I used different colored hearts to decode the message. Each letter was a different colored heart. On each heart, I wrote the letter and then on the large heart I placed a colored dot under the line where that letter should go.

** Instead of using colors to decode the message, you could use various symbols/ letters/ characters.

Next, I hid the hearts around the room. I tucked the hearts into couch cushions, on our play basketball hoop, on the stairs, etc.

My son's job was to find all the colored hearts around the room and he loved this part!! What kiddo doesn't love a good scavenger hunt to find things?! Well, except when it's one of their shoes, ha!

Once all the hearts were found, I showed my son that each color had a letter on it. We identified the colors and letters together.

Next, we found the matching colored dot on the larger heart. On that line he wrote the letter that was on the small colored heart that he found during the scavenger hunt. Great way to sneak in writing practice!!

So what did our secret message say? It said:

I love you!

Such a sweet Valentine's Day activity for my preschooler. What could be more fun than decoding a secret message this Valentine's?!

Planning to add some Valentine's themed activities and crafts for your little one leading up to Valentine's Day? Here are some Heart Shape Puzzles to add to your shelves! They would make a great, low-prep math activity for your toddler or preschooler!

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Simply cut each heart in half to create a fun and simple matching activity for Valentine's Day!

I love teaching my little ones with fun holiday themed activities. With Valentine's Day around the corner, I made these Valentine's themed counting mats to practice counting numbers 1-10. This printable will help build number sense, such as: 1:1 correspondence, counting, and number recognition.

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They are akin to the concept of flashcards, but way cuter! Provide your child with small heart manipulatives and your child will work on fine motor skills, too!

Building Number Sense:

Have your child put the number cards in numerical order.

Touching the manipulatives as they add them to each mat will hopefully plant a seed that the number +1 is the next number; ie. 3+1=4.

Help your child build number sense with the "look and say" method. I find it helpful to have my children repeat after me when I am teaching a new spelling rule, pointing out unknown word, and/or math fact.

Look and point at the number
Say the number
Count out the number on your fingers
Then, add that many hearts to printable math mats.

Continue for numbers up to 10.

Or, Make a Counting Book:

On another note, you could also make this into a little Valentine's Day Counting Book by using stickers or Do A Dot markers.

Just cut out each number mat and staple the mats together to make a book!